Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Guru's Summer League Report: St. Joseph's Stars Highlight Scoring Spree

(Guru’s note: A WNBA roundup post is above this one. Also, per a previous post, Delaware officially announced Thursday former La Salle head coach Tom Lochner’s appointment as an assistant to Tina Martin, which can viewed on the Blue Hens website.)

By Mel Greenberg

HATBORO, N.J. –
If St. Joseph’s players can have performances this winter the way a trio of Hawks had Thursday night in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women’s NCAA Summer Basketball League good things loom ahead if everyone can actually stay healthy when the next collegiate season tips off in November.

Junior Katie Kuester fired 25 points as Kelly Green (6-1) opened up a 1.5 lead at the top of the standings with an 87-60 win over White (2-5) in one of four games played at Kelly Bolish Gymnasium – home of the AAU Renegades – near Willow Grove.

Meanwhile in one of the highest scoring games played in the league in several seasons, St. Joseph’s sophomore Erin Shields fired a league-best seven 3-pointers and scored 27 points while Hawks junior Shelby Smith scored 17 as Purple (4-4) won a 106-89 shootout over Orange (5-3) to move into sole possession of fifth place. Recent La Salle graduate Ashley Gale added 25 points to the Purple attack.

Orange, which dropped to a second-place tie with Gold (5-3), got 19 points from Lehigh senior Aly Byorick, 17 from her sophomore Mountain Hawks teammate Marisa Repasch, 15 from Villanova redshirt freshman Emily Leer, 14 from incoming Division II Caldwell College freshman Devon Gold, and 12 from Kelly Scull, who recently joined the league and plays at Rochester in New York.

Repasch continues to be the top point producer with 137, ahead of Ashley Gale who has 117 to move into second.Kelly Peterson moved into third at 111 and Erin Shields moved into fourth at 101 ahead of Emily Leer who has 99.

Gold was able to gain the second-place tie as a benefit of a forfeit by Columbia Blue (4-3), a team composed entirely of Division II West Chester players, which dropped a spot to sole possession of fourth.

A fifth Columbia Blue player arrived shortly after the 7 p.m. cutoff for the early games that triggers the forfeit. The two teams played anyway but without the game being counted. Gold won at the buzzer when recent Princeton graduate Addie Micir of the two-time defending Ivy champions scored.

In the win by Kelly Green, Lehigh junior Kelly Peterson, the summer team’s top scorer, collected 29 points while also firing six three-pointers. Lafayette senior Sarah McGorry scored 16 points.

White (2-5), which dropped into a 10th-place tie with idle Lime Green (2-5) got 15 points from Villanova redshirt junior Laura Sweeney, and Wildcats junior Jesse Carey scored eight. Jessica Sylvester of Division II University of the Sciences, whose players dominated the White roster, scored nine points while Devils junior Rebecca Ruggear scored eight points as did USP’s Brianne Traub.

Both Traub and Sylvester are projected as 2017 graduates under the USP academic program.

In the battle for the eight playoff spots for the postseason that begins two weeks on Thursday July 26th a 74-47 win by Teal over Royal Blue and a 70-50 win by Cardinal Red over Black resulted in all four teams jammed into a sixth-place deadlock.

Teal (3-4), which suffered the only other forfeit to date, which occurred Tuesday night, got a league-best 37 points from former Temple star Ashley Morris, a 2008 graduate, 15 from 2007 Kent State graduate Lakia Stewart, and 14 from 2005 Temple grad Ari Moore.

Royal Blue (3-4), which fell into the sixth-place deadlock, got 19 points from Division II Holy Family junior Erin Mann and nine from her Tigers sophomore teammate Mary Ellen McCollum.

Cardinal Red (3-4) in its win over Black (3-4) got 18 points from Holy Cross sophomore Alex Smith and 16 from Holy Cross junior Kaitlin Cole.

Jenn Prine, a senior at Dvision II Shepherd U in Charleston, W. Va., scored 17 to top Black’s total, while King’s College
incoming freshman Alicia Hayes scored 15, and Division III Haverford junior Calla Miller scored 13.

Tuesday Night Preview

Three dates – Tuesday, Thursday, and Tuesday (July 26) remain to determine the final standings.

On Tuesday night Kelly Green meets Orange on Court 1 at 7 p.m. looking to clinch a playoff spot and stay in front in the race for the top seed.

Orange, from a standpoint of controlling its own destiny, needs to win one of its last two games to make the playoffs before serving a bye on the final night of the regular season.

Gold will be serving its bye Tuesday night.

Teal will be looking to move up when it meets Columbia Blue at 8:15 p.m. on Court 1 while the opposition will be looking to move higher near the top of the standings.

Royal Blue will be looking to break out of the sixth-place tie when it meets White at 7 p.m. on Court 2. The opposition needs perhaps at least two of its final three wins to make the playoffs.

The same issues that were just said for Royal Blue and White exists for Lime Green, whose situation is the same as White, and Black when they meet on Court 2 at 8:15 p.m.

Purple, which also must still serve a bye on Thursday, needs at least one win to play it safe and will be seeking it against Cardinal Red in the 8:15 p.m. singleton game on Court 3.

Cardinal Red is also trying to break out of the deadlock for sixth.

Here are the quickie won-loss standings to date through July 14th.

Team……………W-L Pct.
Kelly Green……..6-1 .857
Orange……..…….5-3 .625
Gold……………….5-3 .625
Columbia Blue.....4-3 .571
Purple…………….4-4 .500
Royal Blue………3-4 ..429
Black………………3-4 .429
Teal ……………….3-4 .429
Cardinal Red…..3-4 .429
White………………2-5 .286
Lime Green………2-5 .286

-- Mel